{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13987/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13987","id":"gutenberg_13987","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13987","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - American","Category: Law & Criminology","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Slavery -- United States","United States -- Fugitive slave law (1850)"],"text":"SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK,\n\nCONVICTED OF A\n\nVIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW,\n\nBEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND,\n\nOF THE\n\nUNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL.\n\n\nNEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860.\n\n\n\n\nSPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK.\n\n\n     [At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the\n     Northern District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT,\n     of Ottawa, were convicted of having aided in rescuing a\n     fugitive slave from the custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at\n     Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay\n     a fine of one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned ten days.\n     Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth, but spent many years of\n     his life in Quebec, following the occupation of a baker.\n     About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and\n     assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan\n     Canal. He has been for some years past a prominent dealer in\n     grain, has acquired a competency by enterprise and industry,\n     and is considered one of the most upright and intelligent\n     citizens in the community. The following Plea, made by him\n     before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the highest\n     moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine\n     manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that\n     the execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every\n     part of the North, shall be rendered impracticable by a\n     regenerated public sentiment.]\n\nMAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:\n\nI have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced\nagainst me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave\nLaw, and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of\nguilt. I came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad,\nand landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native\nland in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed\nby the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the\ntender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to\nearn my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me.\nUnaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them,\nI have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion\nworthy of the place and the position I occupy, and the great\nprinciples involved in the case before you. I say to your Honor,\ntherefore, if I fail in observing the usual forms of the place, it\nwill be from a want of judgment and error of the head, and not of the\nheart. Therefore I do not think I shall fare worse at the hands of\nyour Honor, if I state plainly my views and feelings on the great\nquestion of the age--the rights of man. I feel that it is a case that\nwill be referred to long after you and I have gone to meet the great\nJudge of all the earth.\n\nIt has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected\nby the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those\nlaws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for\nthe crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands.\n\nSurely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in\nthe stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join\nhands with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black\nman, for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the\nwicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest?\n\nIt is true, Sir--I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the\nrugged but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was\nconquered, and where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on\nthat shore, and his chains fall off for ever, and he becomes what\nGod made him--a man. In this far-off land, I heard of your free\ninstitutions, your prairie lands, your projected canals, and your\ngrowing towns. Twenty-two years ago, I landed in this city. I\nimmediately engaged on the public works, on the canal then building\nthat connects this city with the great river of the West. In the\nprocess of time, the State failed to procure money to carry on the\npublic works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my family,\nand I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is to-day,\nhaving shipped some of the first grain that was exported from this\ncity. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone\nthrough the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have\nspent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven\nchildren, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man,\nSir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am\nopposed to carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom\nof my country, that I stand before you to-day.\n\nAgain, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by\nthe prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for\nbeing an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from\nbeyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But,\nSir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this\ncountry, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I\nsoon found that however much the great parties of my adopted country\ndiffered upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they\nagreed, in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of\nthe most cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over\nany nation, the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as\nhuman sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had\nfled from the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I\nsupport a worse aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my\nhumble name and influence to a party who proposed, at least, to\nembrace in its sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the\nglobe. In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and\nWilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and\nmany such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these,\nthe Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who\ncame to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the\ncaptives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very\nreligion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir,\nwith these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for\nthis I ought not to be sentenced.\n\nAgain, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave\nLaw, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple\ntools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is\nat variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir,\nI place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who\nhave the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of\nJuly, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized\nman, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from\nthe blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads\nblush. The parties who prostitute the Constitution to the support of\nslavery are traitors--traitors not only to the liberties of millions\nof enslaved countrymen, but traitors to the Constitution itself which\nthey have sworn to support. A foreigner upon your soil, I go not to\nthe platforms of contending parties to find truth. I go, Sir, to the\nConstitution of my country: the word slave is not to be found. I read,\n\"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect\nUnion, establish justice,\"--yes, Sir, _establish justice_--\"to promote\nthe general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to\nourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution\nfor the United States of America.\" These were the men who had\nproclaimed to the world that _all_ men were created equal; that they\nwere endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights---life,\nliberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even unto death\nfor seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these great men, under\ncover of those hallowed words, intended to make a government that\nshould outrage justice and trample upon liberty as no other government\nunder the whole heavens has ever done? This dreadful power, that has\ncompelled the great political parties of the country to creep in\nthe dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the\nChristianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with\nGolden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes,\nand husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir,\nI plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty,\nand say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never\nfurnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed\nthe Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest\nslaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great\nslaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true\nexponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice\nand liberty, holds four millions of slaves.\n\nNo, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal\nfrom the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving\nConstitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in\ncarrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the\ndreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament,\ncarried out the spirit of the Constitution.\n\nBut, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the\nletter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon\nthe articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive\nSlave Law is designed to carry out.\n\n     \"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the\n     laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of\n     any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such\n     service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of\n     the party to whom such service or labor is due.\"\n\nThat is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a\nmonster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article,\ninterpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these\nthree or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure\njustice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the\ndestroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men,\nto carry on their hellish work--how it can do this thing, I cannot\nsee. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a\ncertain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do\nyou find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to\nhunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his\ncruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to\ncompel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The\nGeneral Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their\nseparate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly\nprovides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service,\nor labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or\nlabor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise\nmy voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his\ndues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold\neven from the slaveholder--his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not\nowe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that\nhe owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and\nsinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end\nthe period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal\nexamination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man\nPhillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in\npointing out the way this question is to be settled.\n\nArticle V. provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty\nor property without due process of law. That Jim Gray is a person, is\nadmitted on all hands. Phillips admits it; the blood-hounds, marshals\nand attorneys that hunt him, say he is a person--a person held to\nservice. The amount in dispute is the liberty and life-long toil of a\nman just entering into the full maturity of manhood. A great question\nlies between these men. But Gray, standing on soil covered by this\nConstitution, can be robbed of liberty, or the wages of his toil, only\nby due process of law.\n\nArticle VII. says, expressly, in suits at common law, when the value\nin controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury\nshall be preserved. Here, sir, is a case involving the question of\nliberty, and hundreds of dollars of money. The law, Sir, under which I\nappear before you, overrides these plain provisions, and commits this\nwhole question to one man, and offers him a bribe to trample right and\nliberty under foot. I know, Sir, it may be said that Jim Gray was a\nslave, and not entitled to these humane provisions. Had he never worn\nthe chain of the oppressor, nor felt the lash of the bloody\ntask-master--had he been born in Canada, or any where else on the\nglobe--had he been a citizen of one of the States of this Union, and\nnever been enslaved, it would have been all the same. His liberty\nwould have been stricken down, and he been given to the party claiming\nhis life-long toil, and your Commissioner would have pocketed the\nbribe offered by this law for doing such a crime against humanity and\nthe plainest provisions of the Constitution.\n\nNo sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution\nprovides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my\nhand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his\nliberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial\nby jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and\nletter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced.\n\nBefore passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I\nwould call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law,\nwhich is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing\nthis Government. No man can read the Constitution--in which the word\nslave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced\nto a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded--no man, I\nsay, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that\nslavery was to be _fostered, guaranteed_ and _protected_ far beyond\nevery thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's\nproperty, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred\nthan any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is\nfound in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and\nevery department of Government, are not put on the track to find the\nhorse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole\nbill from the National Treasury. No, Sir. But his slave escapes--he\nruns away, and, for some reason, his property in man is so much more\nholy and sacred, that the whole Government is bound to take the track\nand hunt, the poor panting fugitive down, and carry him back to his\nchains and bondage at the Government's expense.\n\nSir, under a Constitution unstained by the word slave, we have a law\nmagnifying slave property above all other property in the nation--a\nlaw giving it guarantees that no other property could possibly obtain.\nSir, the partiality of this law is so great, that it stands opposed to\na Constitution that guarantees equal justice and protection to all.\n\nJohn G. Fee is driven out of his Kentucky home, and robbed of the\nfruits of his life-long toil. There is no power to secure him his\nhome, or protect him in his rights of property or opinion. But had\nJohn G. Fee only owned a slave, and his slave escaped, the Government,\nunder this law, would have followed his slave to the utmost limit of\nthe United States, and returned his slave to him at its own expense.\nYour Honor will pardon me, (if I need pardon,) but I cannot, for the\nlife of me, see what there is in robbing a man of his inalienable\nrights and enslaving him for life, that should entitle it to the\nspecial and peculiar protection of national law.\n\nI am aware, Sir, that I shall be reminded that judges, marshals,\nattorneys, and many citizens, regard this law as Constitutional, and\nstand ready to execute it, though it trample every principle of the\nDeclaration of Independence in the dust. Sir, no law can be enacted so\nbad but that it will find men deluded or base enough to execute it.\nThe law of Egypt that consigned the new-born babe to the slaughter\nfound tools for its execution. The bloody decree of Herod found men\nready to obey the law of the country, though it commanded the\nslaughter of the innocents of a province, Sir, tell me not of men\nready and willing to execute the law! My Redeemer, whose name I am\nhardly worthy to speak, and yet whose name is all my trust, although\nhe knew no sin, yet he was crucified by law.\n\nAgain, Sir, it will be said that some whom the world calls Doctors of\nDivinity and Doctors of Law have undertaken to prove that slavery was\nguaranteed by the Constitution. If that be so, in the name of the Most\nHigh God, tear out the red strip of blood; it was not written by the\nAngel Gabriel, nor nailed to the throne of the Almighty. If slavery is\nin it, it is \"a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell.\"\n\nBut, Sir, I have one consideration more that I will urge why sentence\nought not to be pronounced against me. This law, which I think I have\nproved outrageous to the rights of man, is so obviously at variance\nwith the law of that God who commands me to love Him with all my soul,\nmind, might and strength, and my neighbor as myself, and the Redeemer\nwho took upon him my nature and the nature of poor Jim Gray has been\nso particular in telling me who my neighbor is, that the path of duty\nis plain to me. This law so plainly tramples upon the divine law, that\nit cannot be binding upon any human being under any circumstances to\nobey it. The law that bids me do to other men as I would have other\nmen do to me, is too plain, too simple to be misunderstood. But, Sir,\nI am not now left to the general law of love in searching for my duty\nin this particular case. Permit me to refer your Honor to the oldest\nlaw-book in existence. Though it may not be in use in this Court, yet\nI think it better authority than Blackstone or any law-book that ever\nwas written. It is the book of books. In that book, I find some\nspecial enactments given to the Hebrew commonwealth, that leave me in\nno doubt as to my duty in reference to this law. \"He that stealeth a\nman and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely\nbe put to death.\" Again: \"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the\nservant that has escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell\nwith thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in one of thy\ngates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.\" These\nplain statutes, with many more that I might give, leave me in no doubt\nas to the mind of the unchanging Jehovah, in reference to man-stealing\nand slave-hunting. Sir, the whole system of slavery originated in\nman-stealing, and is perpetuated by fraud and violence and plunder.\nOthers may have their doubts as to their duty under this law; I, Sir,\nhave none. This law is just as binding on me as was the law of Egypt\nto slaughter Hebrew children; just as binding as the law that said,\nWorship the golden image, worship not God; just as binding as the law\nforbidding Christ and his Apostles to preach the Gospel. Send me a law\nbidding me rob or murder my neighbor, I must decline to obey it. I can\nsuffer, but I must not do wrong. Send me a law bidding me join hands\nin robbing my fellow-men of their freedom, I cannot do so great a\nwrong. Yea, send me a law bidding me stop my ears to the cry of the\npoor, I can suffer the loss of all these hands have earned, I can\nsuffer bonds and imprisonment--yes, God helping me, I can give up my\nlife--but I cannot knowingly trample upon the law of my God, nor upon\nthe bleeding, prostrate form of my fellow-man. I go not to Missouri to\nrelieve oppressed humanity, for my duty has called me nearer home; but\nwhen He that directs the steps of man conducts a poor, oppressed,\npanting fugitive to my door, and there I hear his bitter cry, I dare\nnot close my ear against it, lest in my extremity I cry for mercy, and\nshall not be heard. Sir, this law so flagrantly outrages the divine\nlaw, that I ought not to be sentenced under it.\n\nA single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, (part of which\nis false,) and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the\njury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great\nprinciples of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying\nout the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can\nthese things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be\nthat I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of\nChristianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and\nworship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say\nguilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is\nkindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for\nno mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is\nwhat I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is\nall I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me.\n\nMy feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my\nheart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need\nbe, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my\ncountry shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the\ndestruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great\nstruggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be\nconsidered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to\nthemselves.\n\nI am told there is no appeal from this Court; yet I do appeal to the\nCourt of High Heaven, when Judge Drummond and Judge Caton, the rescuer\nand the rescued, shall all have to stand at the judgment-seat of the\nMost High.\n\nI have, Sir, endeavored to obey the Divine law and all the laws of my\ncountry that do not conflict with the laws of my God. My humble wish\nis, that it may then appear that I have done my duty. All I wish to be\nwritten on my tomb-stone is, \"He feared God and loved his fellow-men.\"","title":"Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law: Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District Court, Chicago, Ill.","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":4133}